


A Day in the Arena

by parasolghost



Series: Hijack Week Summer 2013 [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-22
Updated: 2013-06-22
Packaged: 2017-12-15 20:05:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/853523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parasolghost/pseuds/parasolghost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiccup faces his first day of training with the help of a good friend. Hijack Week Day 2: Movie Swap</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day in the Arena

            Hiccup dreaded his first day of dragon training—I mean he was _absolutely_ terrified. As soon as he had entered the arena he felt his blood run cold, which he passed off with a mere comment that no one really heeded aside from the expected “why is he here.” To be completely fair though, he expected that he had a 60% chance of dying that day anyway

            When Gobber pushed him into line with the other Viking teenagers, Hiccup found that he had difficulty holding his axe more than a foot off the ground so he raised his chances of dying to 75%.

            After Gobber made his entire spiel about dragons and prepared them for the gronkle while Fishlegs whispered statistics under his breath, Hiccup bumped that percentage up to 99%.

            Gobber placed his hand on the lever and Hiccup almost dropped his axe in his nervousness. His eyes were placed firmly on the door and he gulped. Sweat rolled down his head and the grip on his axe tightened. Hiccup took a deep breath as Gobber’s hand moved forward and…

            Got stuck. The lever was stuck.

            Gobber gawked at the lever in confusion and Hiccup almost collapsed in his complete and utter relief. He heard moans of disappointment from some of the others and cackling from the twins as Gobber pulled at the lever, trying to open the door, only to have the handle snap in his hands. Gobber threw the broken piece of metal onto the ground with a clank and looked up at the cage that enclosed them.

            “OVERLAND!” he called to the sky. At first there was no response and Hiccup felt a moment of mixed relief and embarrassment as a teenage boy hopped onto the top of the cage and waved down at them.

            There he was—Jackson Overland. He was sort of a weird Viking—not necessarily big and buff like the other men, but he was rather lean and and had a bit of muscle. He had a head of brown hair and matching brown eyes that he overhead the girls swooning over. He looked sort of arrogant—not the ignorant arrogance that Snotlout had or the proud arrogance that Astrid had, but a mischievous arrogance where he was convinced that he could do anything he wanted.

            He was lazy, according to the adults—he never showed any interest in dragon training or working at all. He cooped himself up in his house with his sister every time there was a dragon attack and always spent his time with the kids in Berk.

            He was also sort of Hiccup’s best friend.

            “OVERLAND, YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!” Gobber yelled up at the snickering boy as he hobbled over the entry way.

            “Not a chance, old man!” the mischievous teenager said as he hopped off the cage and made his dastardly escape.

            “You all stay put,” Gobber directed them and Hiccup tossed his axe onto the floor in his exasperation. Everyone else split up, doing their own thing and pretty much avoiding Hiccup. He thought he saw Fishlegs and Astrid peek back at him, but other than that, he was basically alone.

            Not really something he wasn’t accustomed to, so he dealt with it. Gobber hobbled in angrily half an hour later, dragging in the poor loser who messed with the lever in the first place. He threw the boy onto the floor roughly. “Alright, Jack, what did you do with the lever?”

            “Wow, no ‘please’?” Jack pouted and Gobber growled at him. “Alright, calm down—I stuck a rod of metal between the gears, it’s not that hard.”

            Gobber grumbled angrily and limped over to the doors gears to fix it and, out of the corner of his eye, Hiccup saw Jack tiptoeing away. “Stay put, you little troll,” Gobber called over his shoulder.

            Jack groaned and crossed his arms. When he caught sight of Hiccup he smirked and walked over to the freckled boy to ruffle his hair. “So what did you think of my stunt?”

            “Incredibly stupid,” Hiccup said, rolling his eyes. “It didn’t even work out the way we planned—in a few minutes I’m going to have to fight a gronkle and it’ll be your fault,” Hiccup jabbed Jack in the side and the other boy laughed.

            “Aw, don’t be like that Hic,” Jack frowned. “Besides, I don’t know why you’re so bent on escaping dragon training—I mean you did kill a night fury so you’re basically a professional Viking already.”

            “Haha very funny,” Hiccup rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “And I _did_ , in fact, hit a night fury.”

            Jack cackled at him. “Right, right—and I’m going into dragon training,” he countered.

            “Alright, back to business,” Gobber declared and they all turned to him. Hiccup noted with a gulp that the metal rod that had been stuck between the gears was now relatively loose. He saw Jack tense from the corner of his eye. “So! Gronkle, learning on the job—you guys know what I said,” Gobber said hastily as he began to pull the rod out.

            “W-wait!” Jack stammered, “shouldn’t I leave first?”

            “Hey—I said you were getting a punishment,” Gobber said with a shrug. “Welcome to your punishment.”

            Jack became deathly pale and he opened his mouth to object, however he was rather, ah, unceremoniously interrupted by a large brown gronkle that pushed past the gate and pummeled into the group of teens. There was shouting over the commotion that Hiccup couldn’t quite discern until he heard Astrid shout something about a shield.

            _Okay, shield_ , he thought to himself as he looked around frantically for a shield to find a lone one across the clearing. Of course the only available shield on the other side of the arena, just his luck.

            Hiccup lost his balance as he turned and a blast a few feet behind him blew bits of stone everywhere. Hiccup quickly regained his balance only to be knocked back onto the dust when Jack collided into him.

            “Well, hey there,” Jack said jokingly as a blast soared over them. “You come here often?”

            “Not _now_ , Jack,” Hiccup groaned as he tried pushing Jack off of him. “We’re in the middle of the battlefield this isn’t—“

            “Stop flirting, you two—you’ve got company!” Gobber shouted at them as the gronkle floated over to them with its tiny wings beating with all its might. Of course, it seemed a bit ridiculous in retrospect, but it’s still rather terrifying when a dragon that can eat you whole is charging at you.

            Jack rolled over and the two clumsily got to their feet and charged for the shield that still sat in its lonesome at the end of the arena. Hiccup made a groan of exasperation when he noticed that Jack was still running behind him and panicked when he saw the gronkle biting at their ankles.

            “Jack, stop following me!” Hiccup called urgently, making a swift turn that Jack soon followed. The large creature collided with some piles of wood, but was not deterred—if anything it was angrier and followed them with twice the effort.

            “Is that all you got, big guy?” Jack taunted it.

            “I swear to Thor, if we die because of you, I’ll throw you in the lake!” Hiccup screamed at Jack as they narrowly dodged another blast. Jack looked like he was going to retort, but his eyes widened as he realized they were going to run right into the wall.

            “You go right, I’ll go left!” Jack called at Hiccup, who only whined in response as he darted towards the right.

            _Please don’t let it follow me please don’t let it follow me_ , Hiccup prayed silently, looking back to see the large creature and its gaping mouth just a few feet behind him. _Of course_.

            In Hiccup’s moment of self-pity he found himself colliding head first into wall. His head spun and he felt like he was going to fall. However, when he finally regained his stability, he looked up at the mouth of the gronkle.

            _Wow, this is it,_ Hiccup gulped. _I’m going to die on my first day of dragon training. Fantastic._

            “HICCUP!”

            Hiccup instinctively turned his head towards the call to see Jack running at him and knocking him to the ground as the gronkle’s blast knocked right into the wall behind him. Bits of debris fell all over him and Jack as Gobber yanked the dragon by the mouth back towards its cage.

            Hiccup suffered a moment of humiliation as Gobber sternly told him that a dragon will always go for the kill and he and Jack left the arena behind everyone else.

            “So, I kind of saved your life,” Jack said as they walked up the ramp. “Do I get like, a thank you hug or a compliment or something?”

            “You’re a moron,” Hiccup said with a small smile, punching his best friend in the arm.

            “Close enough.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not exactly my most romantic work because I wanted to keep it short and sweet. u v u I always thought it would be interesting if Jack had been a viking of Berk during the events of How to Train Your Dragon anyway so here we are--done with Day 2 of Hijack week! Look out for tomorrow's prompt!


End file.
